Wednesday Must Reads: OPD Disproportionately Targets Black Youth; Larry Reid Decides to Not Run for Mayor of Oakland

Wed, Aug 28, 2013 at 10:06 AM

1. Oakland police disproportionately target black youths for arrest and over half the arrests result in no charges being filed, raising concerns that police are engaging in racial profiling, the ACLU and other groups found in a new study, the Trib reports. The study, which examined arrest data from 2006 to 2012, determined that police have been arresting black youths at two-and-a-half times their proportion of the population. In addition, prosecutors refused to file charges in more than half of all arrests of black youth in the city because of a lack of evidence.

Larry Reid

2. Longtime Oakland Councilman Larry Reid has decided to not run for mayor next year, citing health concerns, the Chron reports. Reid, who has become one of Mayor Jean Quan’s staunchest critics after being a longtime ally, had been mulling a run, but said that his daughter convinced him not to do it because she fears for his health.

3. The massive Rim Fire reached Hetch Hetchy Reservoir, heightening concerns that ash will contaminate the primary water source for the City of San Francisco, Mercury News reports. Hetch Hetchy, which also provides water to numerous Bay Area cities, including Hayward, does not have a water-filtration system so it’s especially vulnerable to contamination. And the big fear is that stormwater runoff will carry huge amounts of ash into the reservoir when the rainy season hits.

4. Governor Jerry Brown wants to spend $315 million to house inmates in private prisons rather than release low-level offenders to meet the requirements of a court-order to reduce overcrowding, the SacBee$ reports. But state Senate Leader Darrell Steinberg says Brown’s plan has no support in the Senate.

5. Fast-food workers in the Bay Area plan to strike Thursday to protest low-wages, the Trib reports.

6. Most shampoos on the market contain a known carcinogen, according to a lawsuit filed by the Oakland-based Center for Environmental Health against numerous retailers and manufacturers, the Chron reports. Here is a list of the cancer-causing products.

7. And the Bay Bridge will close tonight for five days so that Caltrans can open the new eastern span by Tuesday morning.